Are there any guests you would do anything to see? For example, a con you don't plan to go to is in two months, then they announce a guest you are dying to see. What would you do to see them? How far would you go to see them? I imagine most of these are going to be Japanese guests.

There are a few JPop artists I would try my hardest to see, including Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, Utada Hikaru, Mika Nakashima, and Koda Kumi. But I would probably make my hardest attempt to go to a con with Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya performing songs together from the Nana anime series. I love those songs.

Being a huge Final Fantasy freak, I would love to be able to see Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, or Yoshitako Amano.

Finally, definitely not anime, but I would love to see David Tennant at a con and would probably make it work to go to a con where he is appearing.

I have a long list of amazing guests I would drop anything to see (at the top of that list is Nanae Chrono), but as I've just gotten done with Kawa Kon, I realize that I was willing to put myself in debt just to get Cam Clarke there (I didn't end up having to put myself in debt, but I would have). With the man in front of me going all Liquid Snake... I fangirled even as a the con chair. Of course, I kind of waited to have my fangirl moment with him until after Closing Ceremonies on Sunday, but it happened.

AX keeps getting guests every year that I would love to drop everything to see, but for several reasons (such as being on the opposite coast, AX being right before Comiccon, no $$) cannot.

Seki Toshihiko last year and this year Daisuke Ishiwatari, come to mind immediately... I am SO upset I can't go to AX this year and see him!

Aside from those two, Chuck Huber and Scott McNeil. :D I haven't heard of Scoots being at any con aside from BotCon for a long time, makes me sad.
EDIT: scratch that, Wingboy voice actors 1-4 at Metrocon this year... sigh. :( At least I met Mark Hildreth this year already.

On the non-anime side, Brent Spiner- and gotta agree on Conan, Shiva! ;) (I went to school with a cousin-something-removed of his, haha)

On the anime side, I would drop EVERYTHING and fly to a con if Hiromu Arakawa (mangaka, creator of Fullmetal Alchemist...) would ever appear at a stateside con.

Also, from a non-anime perspective, I nearly flew to New Mexico for SWACE last year because Ralph Bakshi was a guest. (OMG OMG OMG. RALPH BAKSHI!!) I also seriously regretted not going to DragonCon the year they had John Rhys-Davies and a few other actors from LOTR down there.

Oh, and Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki from Supernatural. Man, what I'd do to be in the presence of those two men...

@Shiva: LOLing very hard at the thought of Bill Clinton at a scifi/anime con... HEEEEEY BABY!!! (Lol!)

Yeah I know. I have AnimeCons on my twitter so I always know who is at where. Sadly I'm suck in my own little corner of the west states so I'm only able to make it to about two or three cons a year that are in the area (one being my own).
Patrick: How about this? I would go out of my way to have him as a guest. That is my goal someday, we just need the funds to be able to get him out here.

For me, I'd drop everything to see Kate Higgins at a Con, and be very, very tempted to drop everything to see Mela Lee at a Con as well (especially if her band was there as musical guests). Yoko Kanno would also make it on my list. Aside from the non-anime VA guests, and the Japanese VA's, I have been pretty lucky to have attended Cons with many of the other VA's listed (Vic, Chuck, Wendy)I even got to see Bill Clinton in my hometown during a 'stump' speech for Hilary (before Obama won the election).

I moderated Todd's first panel at his first convention in 2008. It was in a small panel room, poorly attended, and the audience had hardly any questions. I tried to keep the discussion lively and asked plenty as the moderator, but we still ended up ending early.

Now he's hugely popular and people flock to his panels. How times have changed!

Cristina Vee (I usually don't go ga-ga for English voice actors, but she's damn good. One of the few exceptions. I could have had a pic taken with her at NYAF last year... Yeah... if my phone wouldn't have died.... -.-;; Here's to hoping she shows up at NYAF again this year as a last minute guest.. I'll make it a point to get a pic taken with her, if my life depends on it lolz)

Yuki Kajiura (She was at Animé Boston 2009 with her girl group Kalafina, though I couldn't see her other than from a distance during the Kalafina concert.)

Utada Hikaru (I attended her Boston stop of the In The Flesh tour in 2010. It was epic. I was in awe that I actually attended it for days after.)

I was at FanimeCon '08 when I was able to get signatures from Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Takami Akai, Toshio Okada and Yasuhiro Takeda on the sleeve for my Daicon III/IV Laserdisc. I would DROP EVERYTHING to get a signature from Hideaki Anno on it.

In the category of guests who I have seen:

Mamoru Yokota: BEST AUTOGRAPH SESSIONS EVER. He was the last person on the schedule for the autographh room (7-8pm) on Saturday but he did FULL SKETCHES for every person in line and kept at it until 4am. I was literally blown away at what he did at that autograph session and will continue to support conventions he attends even if he stops doing sketches for everyone.

Edited by Kogoruhn on 01-14-12 02:42 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

Matt Greefield (Have met, and was awesome. Totally worth it to every anime fan. Meeting Greenfield is something every anime fan should be obligated to do. Just don't ask him to sign your FMA, that poor kid was excoriated)
Stephen Foster
David Williams